Toronto slipping close to open rebellion against Rob Ford

Tired of continued apologies with little action to show real remorse, Toronto is finally done with Ford

Toronto has finally had it with Rob Ford. It’s been simmering beneath the surface for a long time, but his last allies are ditching him, there is open rebellion in the streets and his fellow councillors at city hall are in open rebuke.

The era of civility is gone. Rob Ford took his gloves off, now those who oppose him are doing the same.

It began on Canada Day. Rob Ford was walking down the street but was met with more boos than cheers in some areas.

Then later in the day, a shirtless jogger, a high school teacher named Joe Killoran, confronted the mayor during the same parade.

Across the internet, residents of the city praised Killoran’s outburts, while those decrying it as insane were relegated to Ford campaign camps and family.

But that was only the beginning.

When Ford sat down for his come-back media tour, the questions were hard, they focused on real issues, the interviewers fought back against his campaigning and wouldn’t let him get away with platitudes. The CBC’s Dwight Drummond asked him directly about racism, homophobia and his associations with criminals. Rob dodged all of them. CP24’s Stephanie Smyth asked the same and was given almost word-for-word the same dodge. She asked if he would attend Toronto’s Pride parade, but didn’t get an answer there, either.

The result of his botched return was once again open calls for his resignation from his former ally the Toronto Sun and his old enemy the Toronto Star.

Seeing the writing on the wall, that questions were now harder and he didn’t have any good answers, Ford simply hunkered down and began cancelling remaining interviews. In a stunning sweep, he called off interviews with Global News, CTV, CityNews and the Toronto Sun.

But avoiding the media doesn’t actually help him avoid the hard questions. Andray Domise, candidate in the upcoming municipal election asked him questions at a community event, which also went unanswered. Domise then blogged about the experience for The Huffington Post.

Yesterday, I had an unpleasant encounter with Mayor Rob Ford at Ribfest. I shook his hand and asked him if he was going to apologize for referring to African Canadians as “niggers,” and to community grant programs as “hug-a-thug” programs. The brief exchange ended with him shrugging and saying “It’s complicated,” before walking away.

It’s complicated. That’s one way to put it.

But it didn’t end there. Having spent three and a half years alienating his colleagues in City Hall, he is still unable to push an agenda through an organization that deeply distrusts him. Despite his trip to rehab, city council has no intention of reinstating his former powers and is now actively seeking to reprimand his poor behaviour.

The City of Toronto’s integrity commissioner released a report on Thursday morning finding that Ford violated the code of conduct when he robocalled the constituents of a fellow councillor. He demanded that Ford apologize to the councillor on the floor of council and in writing. As if we could stomach any more apologies from this man.

On the heels of that report, Councillor Paula Fletcher put forward a motion in council that would forbid Ford from cherry-picking attendees to press conferences like he did on Monday’s welcome-back event.

“Recently Mayor Ford held a media Conference at City Hall at which he excluded accredited members of Toronto’s Press Gallery,” she wrote. “Members of Council are free to decline media interviews but the Mayor or a Member of Council should not be permitted to hold a media conference on City property where accredited members of the Press Gallery are excluded.”

Actions like these are now becoming commonplace.

… And Mayor Rob Ford just ran away from reporters through the kitchen at One restaurant #TOpoli

Ford is now actively avoiding interacting with people in the city, actively avoiding talking to people in any meaningful way. Meanwhile, those who work with him are actively limiting his powers, actively punishing him for his misdeeds in even small and symbolic ways.